By OLADELE OLADIPUPO

“Thought is the original source of all wealth, all success, all material gain, all great discoveries, and inventions and all achievement” – Claude M. Bristol

ACCORDING  to a popular slogan: “Good thinking, Good product.” Let me pose a one million naira question: what kind of value do you put on good thinking? When I was young, I used to think that there was only one thinking but now I have discovered that there are about eleven kinds of thinking. Examples include but not limited to the following: critical thinking, creative thinking, strategic thinking, focused thinking, realistic thinking and reflective thinking.

The world has produced great thinkers and philosophers, people like Albert Einstein, Faraday, Isaac Newton, Graham Bell, Edison, Bill Gate, The Wright Brothers, Steve Jobs, William Shakespeare and Professor Wole Soyinka who has made Africa proud. All of these great men had contributed immensely to the global economy not only that, but also they have made the world a better place to live in. 

For instance, the three Wright Brothers invented the aeroplane, Graham Bell was noted for inventing telephone, Bill Gate invented the Microsoft computer, while Steve Jobs invented Apple Computer. Obviously, our thinking faculty which is our Central Nervous System, CNS, has a lot to do with our behavioural patterns, the way we think, the way we relate with one another, the way we make decisions and the way and manner we formulate and implement policies that tend to have either positive or negative impacts on the masses. 

This brings us to the issue of multiple identity cards. All over the world, identity card plays an important role, including serving as a means of identification. In most developed countries such as the United Kingdom, UK, and the United States of America, USA, only one major identity card is used in their day to day transactions. Moreover, there are also examples of quite a few African countries like the Republic of Togo, the Republic of South Africa and Cote d’Ivoire with a single identity card which they use to vote and for other transactions. In 2014, I had a nasty experience when I was trying to reactivate my bank account in one of the new generation banks. Recall that during the tenure of former President Olusegun Obasanjo, Nigerians were asked to obtain a national identity card.

So my wife and I went to Surulere where we obtained our laminated cards on the same day. I took this card to the bank as a means of identification since my international passport and driver’s license had already expired; the only option left for me was to take the identity card to the bank. But when I showed the ID card to the lady who attended to me at the bank, the young lady told me that she would not accept the photocopy of the ID card. When I asked her the reason she rejected the ID card, she told me that a new card called the National Identity Number, NIN, had been launched by the Federal Government and I should go and obtain the card. 

I later requested to see the Branch Manager of the bank to make a complaint about the officer’s attitude but I was told that he was not on seat. I asked the lady where to get a new ID card and she directed me to the Lagos State University. It took me three working days before I could do the biometric and finally a slip was given to me to keep and that my ID card would be ready in due course. It has been a decade now, and I have not collected my original identity card from the National Identity Management Commission, NIMC. In the process of obtaining the NIN identity card many Nigerians wasted their valuable time on a project that has gulped billions of tax payer’s money. The money could have been spent on some other pressing issues facing the country. 

Recall that during the administration of former President Muhammadu Buhari, the Federal Government initiated the policy of linking the NIN with telephone numbers. The reason it gave was that it would assist law enforcement agencies in tracking down criminals. In the process of trying to link the NIN with telephone numbers, most Nigerians wasted their valuable time and resources. This shows that we do not value time in this country. Recently, it was reported in one of the dailies that the NIMC had announced a plan to launch three new national identity cards for about 104 million citizens across the country. The three new national identity cards as planned by NIMC include a bank-enabled national identity card, a social intervention card and an optional ECOWAS national biometric identity card. 

I think it is time for our policy makers to put on their thinking cap and do the needful. Obviously, right now the country is facing many challenges that require urgent attention such as insecurity, erratic power supply, ailing economy, unemployment and infrastructural decay. As far as I am concerned, the idea of printing three new national ID cards should be discarded right away because we do not need new identity cards. To be candid, the masses in this country are really suffering, most Nigerians are going through hell, our economy is in a comatose state and people can hardly feed themselves. We have four refineries in this country and for the past ten years the Federal Government had spent billions of naira on the Turn Around Maintenance, TAM, but up till now none of the refineries is working. 

In May 2023, the Federal Government removed oil subsidy. Since then, the value of our naira has depreciated. And as a result of this and other unfriendly policies the prices of petroleum products and other essential commodities have gone up. In another related development, the Federal Government announced an increase of electricity tariff from #65kwh to #225kwh. The question is: Where do we go from here? We do not need three new identification cards. 

In order for the country to forge ahead let us adopt the NIN as our single and authentic identity card for now. There is no basis for government to print new cards. The resources that are supposed to be used in printing new cards can be channeled into infrastructural development and provision of jobs for the teeming unemployed youths.

God bless Nigeria!!!

*Oladipupo, a public affairs commentator, wrote via: [email protected]